'''Case law in the USA''' is the collection of rulings handed down by the [[USA patents courts and appeals|courts that deal with patents]] in the [[USA]]. Case law provides the official interpretations of the [[Legislation in the USA|legislation]].

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{{infobox usa}}

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:''Some recent case law is documented in [[Patentability in the USA after Alice]]''

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The highest court, the [[US Supreme Court]], has not directly examined the question of the patentability of software ideas, but it has taken decisions on closely related [[patentable subject matter]] in a triplet of cases in the 70s and early 80s ([[Gottschalk v. Benson (1972, USA)|Benson]], [[Parker v. Flook (1978, USA)|Flook]], [[Diamond v. Diehr (1981, USA)|Diehr]]), and in the 2010 [[Bilski v. Kappos]] case.

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'''Case law in the USA''' is the collection of rulings handed down by the [[USA patents courts and appeals|courts that deal with patents]] in the [[USA]]. Case law provides the official interpretations of the [[Legislation in the USA|legislation]].

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A lower court, the [[US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] (CAFC) has upheld many software patents.

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The highest court, the [[US Supreme Court]], has only ruled on certain aspects of the software and [[patentable subject matter]]. From the 70s and early 80s, there's [[Gottschalk v. Benson (1972, USA)|Benson]], [[Parker v. Flook (1978, USA)|Flook]], and [[Diamond v. Diehr (1981, USA)|Diehr]]. More recently there's [[Bilski v. Kappos|Bilski (2010)]] and [[Alice v. CLS Bank ruling by US Supreme Court on 19 June 2014|Alice v. CLS (2014)]] and one important non-software case, [[Mayo ruling by US Supreme Court on 20 March 2012|Mayo (2012)]].

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==The main cases==

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A lower court, the [[US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] (CAFC) has upheld many software patents but the Bilski and Alice rulings by the Supreme Court should reduce the CAFC's ability to continue doing so.